wait, those turtle heads are masks???? No X-Fly versus the Turtles, a sad day.

Today’s the first All Elite shows. Chavo and Hernandez have both mentioned they’re on their way to Mexico; it’s always kind of an iffy thing when unknown Mexican indies promote bringing in guys from other countries because the track record there is not so great, but this one seems on the level (and bodes well for the rest of the card.)

It’s still going to be a strange situation with Chavo very much a part of AAA’s Lucha Underground and facing two of the most marketable guys from CMLL on these shows – Volador today in Arena Puebla and Sombra on Saturday in Arena Coliseo – while teaming with Ultimo Guerrero, who’s said to have at least some role in programming CMLL. Chavo’s role in Lucha Underground is around the same as Konnan, and there’s no way in a million years CMLL would approve of their guys being in a match with (a healthy) Konnan. There’s a lot of history there with Konnan that’s not there with Chavo, obviously, but the original CMLL beef with Konnan was he was recruiting guys to go to AAA and Chavo’s definitely in a position to do exactly the same if he so desires.

The difference there is the other promotion was forming in Mexico, which meant both direct competition and that it was all happening nearby physically and easier to find out about. Lucha Underground is happening in another country and you’d need to make a moderate effort to find out about it, especially in Mexico. CMLL doesn’t make even a slight effort to learn about things outside of them, both among the wrestlers and even more so among the front office. I think it’s very possible CMLL is not objecting to Chavo on these shows because the key people have no idea there is a Lucha Underground and Chavo’s involved in it. Perhaps they’ll know a bit more after this weekend. The All Elite shows should have good matches but this an interesting story in itself.

Lucha Underground people have been pretty consistent and insistent that some of the spoilers out are wrong. Nothing makes me want to pick up my laptop and throw it at a wall more than having an incorrect result on this site, so I’ve been very curious as to what this could be. I’m 3 for 3 with match results so far, but I’m beginning to think that’s not what they mean. The Chavo promo segment last night was redone – live, he did his anti-Demon promo in the ring after the match, but we saw an edited interview with Vampiro last night. While the matches results have been correct so far, there’s plenty of room in between the matches to change things around and a TV company would see those as more meaningful changes than wrestling fans.

That’s one of the differences here: wrestling promotions may take a few takes to shoot something, but once it’s done it’s done and once a show is finished taping it’s not reopened. Lucha Underground seems to be shooting segments, editing segments, and then bringing back people again if they feel like they need to make something better. That’s why Pentagon and others have mentioned heading back to Los Angeles even after the tapings – they’re doing some press work, but they’re also still shooting things (and reshooting them for Unimas, which is being said not to have started until they finished up everything else.) Even though they’re not taping matches for the public, they’re still actively working on this show. This is a good sign.

This is going to be a bit harder once there’s a quicker turn around between when shows tape and when they air, but they probably won’t need as much time to get episode 15 right as episode 3 because they’ll have figured it out a bit.

Speculating aside, here’s the preview for episode four: “Thrill of the Hunt”

Porra Fresa has an article about Arena Coliseo San Ramon, the new Puebla arena where a lot of the locals luchadors from the Arena Puebla shows are now also wrestling. The promotion is centered around the Tigre Rojo/Toro Bill feud that’s gone on for years – they’re doing a mask vs hair match with the dads this weekend – and it’s cool to see them get a venue of their own after being limited to street shows and rare TV appearances for years. They look like they’re drawing a pretty decent crowd for a weekly show, though it’s only been running for a month. (Yes, Rey Apocalipsis worked the first show. No, I don’t have video.)

CMLL Informa continues to get more pointless. The final segment included the Ingobernables mocking the questions and the show – they were doing it as heels, but they weren’t exactly wrong, which kind of makes it worse. It’s interesting to hear Rush repeatedly say he has no interest in a hair match – and definitely not interest in a hair match with Ultimo Guerrero – when it’s reasonable to suspect that’ll be in a cage match for hairs with Ultimo Guerrero in the very near future.

Rey Cometa suffered a bad cut thanks to Puma; photo of the stitches are here, and CMLL tries to build it up as reigniting their feud. There’s no reason to believe CMLL will actually go anywhere with a midcard feud especially if there’s no title, hair, or mask to be put on the line. I wasn’t exactly beating down the door to see Angel de Oro versus Sagrado, but they couldn’t even bother to do a lightning match for that. (That said, more trios matches with them would be fun.)

SuperLuchas reprints a great interview with Teddy Baños: luchador, referee and historian. Teddy kept a journal of every match he was in (same as Corazon de Leon!) and developed a box score for lucha libre as part of his record keeping. As someone who has struggled to do the same, I’d be interested in seeing what he came up with. Teddy mentions one of his big goals is to get every lineup from a specific decade, with the hope that other people might be doing the same for other decades and they’d have a complete list. This is a great hope.

the matches

the developments

Dario Cueto and Konnan met prior to the first match, with Konnan explaining he’d brought the three top young talents from Mexico: Drago, Fenix, and Pentagon Jr. (Dario asked if there were visa problems, Konnan said they were cleared up.) Dario booked them in a three way match to prove who was best.

Dario came to the ring and mocked complaints that there weren’t enough lucha. He introduced Mariachi Loco as working at the Mexican restaurant down the street (with his band!) and would perform if he won. He did not win. Sagrada was introduced as part of Lucha Underground’s open door policy – anyone who shows up can fight.

Sagrada won cleanly, but was attacked and laid out by Chavo. A sit down interview with Vampiro and Chavo explained Chavo’s turn – he’s sick of playing the nice legacy carrier, he’s doing it his way now, and he thinks Blue Demon Jr. is just a famous name who’s never actually been any good.

Mil Muerte has a stone, has a stone punch

Chavo was later confronted by Konnan (who warned him about Mexicans coming after him for his attacks on Demon and Sagrada – no mention of Sexy all show) and Mil Muertes/Catrina (who were upset THEY didn’t get to beat up Demon.)

Mil Muerte’s backstory was explained: he’s Pascual Mendoza, his family were all killed in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake when he was a kid and the stone is from the wreckage. He’d like revenge on the world.

Johnny Mundo laid out Cortez and Castro again in route to demanding Cueto give him a match with Big Ryck next week. Cueto accepted, and Mundo vowed he’d take out Ryck and then Cueto. Cueto paid Ryck to take the match. He was seen in a prison like setting at the end of the show, apparently talking to a back up plan. (This part seemed to fit with the key he’s been wearing, as if Dario’s keeping his secret man in a, uh, uh, I can’t think of the word. Eh, can’t be that important.)

Another Prince Puma vignette was shown.

Fenix and Pentagon and Drago were awesome – classic situation where they all got over, though Fenix was slightly pushed above the other two.

Thoughts

Of all the shows where I was indirectly referenced in the first segment, this was my favorite.

how to beat a dragon

Fenix, Pentagon and Drago knocked it out of the park in their debut. That first minute would’ve been good enough, but they kept turning up the gas to the end and everyone looked like superman. Fenix’s stage dive looked crazy, especially since that’s the first we’ve seen anyone use the Temple in that sort of way. A lot of the spots would look familiar to people who’ve followed them in Mexico, but they all looked great and the finish was perfect. Fenix won but all three guys were made by the match, and it’s just a matter of following up on it. It looks like they do. Either Striker hadn’t seen a lot of these guys before or did a good job pretending they were knew, because he was totally (and pleasantly) caught off guard at times.

Mascarita looked good in his debut and they used him the right way: Mariachi got the better of him a lot, lost advantage when he didn’t take Sagrada seriously, and Sagrada used his speed to get the win. Crowd was into the character.

The regulars from the last few shows didn’t have matches, but they did a lot of work on moving the characters a little bit forward a step. The Chavo interview was great, both in terms of getting over his character and in terms of appealing to this particular author. The Johnny Mundo skit was straight of those action movies he’s looking to film (though poor Cortez/Castro have been dropped pretty low on the totem pole already. Someone’s got to be on bottom.) They set up a match for next week and a mystery for down the line. The Mil Muertes backstory was creative and we got answers a lot quicker than I’d expect.

This show is rolling on all cylinders right now. It’s not better than I thought it would be, it’s better than I thought it COULD be.

Like this:

FENIX: 23 years old, from Mexico City. Tecnico greatly influenced by Japanese juniors wrestling; it was his dream to one day wrestle in Japan and he broke down in tears after his first match there. Joined AAA in 2011 and quickly rose to the midlevel. Won the new AAA Fusion championship in 2013 with the idea of making him the centerpiece of an AAA satellite promotion based on exciting young luchadors in small venues. (That sounds vaguely familiar.) Fenix is the quintessential AAA young guy: clearly anointed by the promotion as a next big star but left adrift in months as a time. The latest idea in AAA itself is to make Myzteziz his veteran mentor, but his success in Lucha Underground could reshape his future again.
(photo)

Recommended match: Ricky Marvin & Super Crazy vs Fenix & Pesadilla, 2013-01-26 – Ricky Marvin & Super Crazy are NOAH regulars at this point. This match back in Veracruz is a very transparent tryout for the other two, who aren’t a regular team. The veterans definitely look better but Fenix generally does well and both mean earn tours in Japan. (Let’s not talk about how that went for Fenix.)

Deep Cut:Fenix vs Dinamic Black, 2013-03-21 – you have to take Fenix out of AAA for him to actually get singles matches, and his highest profile one was against IWRG’s rising star (at the time) Dinamic Black. What starts as a friendly meeting of two high flyers who generally do a US style derails a bit after a miscommunication, and then completely goes off the rails when both guys angrily decide to stop with the lucha libre and delve into something else. This is not a good match at points, but it turns into quite a fight.

Drago

DRAGO: 39 years old from from Mexico City. AAA 2000s utility player who has spent time as a Michael Jackson themed luchador, a skateboarding kid, and a cat (sponsored by a battery company.) Lived on the fringe of the roster until being cast as new gimmick Drago. The character is one of the bigger design successes of AAA’s current era; Drago’s not ben involved in a lot, but he’s popular and looked much more confident in the ring with the promotion behind him. His unique look – that weird tongue! – keeps him interesting even when he doesn’t win.

Recommended match: Angélico, Drago, Jack Evans vs Carta Brava Jr., Eterno, Steve Pain, 2013-06-14 – Drago’s AAA title matches have just been okay (usually for other people involved in there), but he’s been involved in a lot of good trios match. This is mostly a random match, with Drago teaming with the current tag champions against the Anarquia’s Eterno & Super Pain and random eviledoer Carta Brava, but it’s a good exhibition for all six guys.

PENTAGON JR.: 29 years old, from Mexico City. Came in to AAA around 2011 and wrestled Fenix many times and had great matches all the time, which springboard both into bigger positions in the company. Carries himself like an ax murder and looks the part. Appears to have gone this year from a guy who’s used to make others to a guy AAA wants to make himself, it may be just a matter of time before he picks up his first big mask win. Pentagon can do all the crazy moves the other two can, but he really shines at holding a match together and making a high flyer look good. He probably won’t be the public star as the other two right away, but Pentagon’s the guy close watching fans will appreciate the most.

Recommended match: Australian Suicide vs Pentagón Jr., 2014-05-10 – Pentagon Jr. hsa spend most of the year torturing a kid from Australia. Australian Suicide finally gets some revenge in their first match, though indications are it won’t be their last.

Deep Cut: Arez vs Pentagon Jr. 2014-06-21 – Arez is not Australian Suicide and this is not AAA, so no chance for revenge, only room for Pentagon Jr. to murder a guy

Presumably everyone in the cage match knows they’re in and has been told just to challenge everyone else, because that’s the way it’s playing out. (That suggest someone’s actually worked this out in advance.) Felino’s my bet to lose the match hasn’t even been announced yet.

Estrellita beating Zeuxis makes absolutely no sense. I’d be willing to believe a CMLL referee screwed up but the photo shows Estrellita using her signature backslide bridge-ish move and that’s usually the finish.

A bit announcing talking point is how some wrestlers reach even greater heights after losing their masks. It seems to be a belief of the programming committee as well, because almost every main event feud the last two months has revolved around Ultimo Guerrero in some way. That’s probably why they’re doing a cage match – ultimo Guerrero is so hot (at least in their minds) they might as well taking advantage of it by putting his hair on the line already. The by product has been stale top of CMLL especially if you’re not interested in a billion Ultimo Guerrero singles matches.

All the matches are right there, no need to list them. This is episode 3, the one we’ve been holding out for since they taped it. The first two episodes have been significantly better than expected so it’s not as though this show needs to be a home run to save it or anything of the sort, but is the first big opportunity for Fenix, Pentagon and Drago to make a name for themselves in front of an English speaking audience. Everyone’s been super positive about this match and some of their ones to come, and I can’t wait to see it tonight.

The poster isn’t really specific on the relevos suicidas final happening on this show, I may have that wrong. (The poster actually makes it seem as though it’s a double apuesta tag match but that seems even less likely.)

CMLL’s preview for tonight’s show lists Tigre & Puma in the semimain, so they’re replacing Gran Guerrero and Misterioso for reasons unknown. CMLL’s already swapped Shocker for Niebla in the main event and is pushing it as a chance to see the Shocker/Azul feud again. I’m not sure why you’d want to see that again if you saw it first time, but the word going around is it’s taking place because Niebla is suspended again. Not sure what exactly happened in Friday’s semimain but Niebla did something there to get himself one of those two week timeouts. Today’s lightning match is Polvora/Titan, which will probably be an inconclusive build to Sunday’s title match. (CMLL’s preview makes no mention of the title match.)